Dev Worshipers, are they Boons or Loons?

Discussion in 'Discussions' started by Fruit, Jul 17, 2014.

  1. Fruit

    Fruit Member

    Hi!

    I've been wanting to write about Dev Worship for awhile now but I haven't found the time to gather my thoughts around it nor write it. But here it is.

    oh, and by the way, I recommend not commenting until after you've finished reading. I know it's hard, but do try.


    For those unfamiliar with the term, Dev Worship, is essentially Hero Worship. The subconscious deifying of a person of power or creation. There are also subcategories of it such as the Cult of Personality and Apotheosis and I'll get to those later.

    Dev Worshipers are people whom will not only defend a dev or game's good qualities but also its flaws. Distorting them to be none existent or even positive to the final outcome. The course is often due to the Devs creating a product that they enjoy and therefor considering the devs to be doing them a favour, even though they're paying for it. Now, this can be a boon to the company. They have a definite market of people whom will purchase their every product, be it games or random merchandise.


    [​IMG]
    With only twenty of these and a small person with thick eyebrows
    you could LARP Dungeons of Dredmor in your own livingrom!


    But, the very same people will also try to "protect" the devs from any criticism or feedback that can be seen as negative. Dev Worshipers can also end up being a nuisance in the community since they will often get very angry if someone doesn't agree with them. But it's also hard to get rid of them since they are some of the most active members of the community and loved by the other worshipers.

    You'll also find that they'll consider all contact with the dev as a holy intervention. That when a dev "descends" onto their thread it's a sign of how well they've done. In a community as small as this one, it happens quite frequently as well which increases the imagined encouragement to keep worshiping.

    [​IMG]
    Pictured above: Holy intervention
    Kind of like that but with more Dr. Peppers and empty insta-noodles.

    One of the worst cases of worshiping is when they get to speak directly with the developer. If the developer grants them any kind of meaningless title or even comments on their positive affects on their community they'll be clinging onto that word as a token of power. Claiming to be endorsed or the chosen one of their make-believe gods whilst in reality it was just a regular conversation or interaction for the developer himself.

    This can also be seen in the cliché of a fan getting a handshake from a famous personality and then claiming to never wash their right hand ever again.

    [​IMG]
    Fortunately virtual forums don't require any sanitary precautions.

    As I've said, Dev Worshiping is subconscious therefor they can still look at those people who deify a handshake and laugh, because hey, it's just a handshake! But for them it's impossible to link it to their obsessive deifying of a conversation with a dev.



    That concludes the article about Dev Worshipers in general, for those whom are interested to learn more about Dev Worship in its various forms that I mentioned earlier, feel free to keep reading.




    The most common kind of Hero Worship is Apotheosis, when fans deify a Hero. In history it has been done with Guan Yu, Confucius and Jesus.

    But in Dev Worship this is done by praising someone no matter what ill they might do. When Diablo III launched there were a lot of fans defending the always online DRM even though it made the game impossible to play for the first few hours after launch. Same with games like simcity and every MMO ever made.

    Cult of Personality in Dev Worship it's essentially the use of the community that will defend the game to the hilt. This is of course a narcissistic trait where someone enlists the help of friends to defend their distorted perspective, as if they win by majority. It is often done by censoring the people whom might disagree.

    People that do such things are often youtubers who ask their viewers to "go and [insert action of justice here] on their channel/social media", but also by the devs of objectively terrible and rip off games such as the former "War Z" and so on.


    I'd like to thank you for getting this far and further indulge in all the juicy information I've provided! Cheers!

    [​IMG]
    This is what came up when I googled Delicious Information.
    It's all yours.
     
    OmniaNigrum likes this.
  2. Wolg

    Wolg Member

    ...And?
     
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  3. Fruit

    Fruit Member

    Good question. Now go out and ask yourself the same thing every time you do something and you'll find that not everything done is done in the name of productivity but entertainment.
     
    OmniaNigrum likes this.
  4. Kaidelong

    Kaidelong Member

    Given you made a long post here I would feel unjustified not responding at all, but the only response I can really muster is "yup". I've been on both ends of this and it really just seems to be inevitable. People like authority because authoritarian hierarchies give a certain kind of certainty and people hate uncertainty? People also treat a host with respect because the host chooses who stays and who leaves at the host's house?
     
    OmniaNigrum likes this.
  5. Haldurson

    Haldurson Member

    Opinions are nearly always based on an emotional reaction, and only explained after the fact through rationalizations. In other words, they are (ALMOST) never reasoned out. It's the same reason why in taste tests, the same exact wine delivered in a cheap vs. expensive looking wine bottle will taste entirely different. The same effect is observed with bottled water, and why in blind taste tests non-organically grown foods tend to taste better, but when unblinded, you get the reverse result. The taste effect is real, btw. It's not that we imagine that the more expensive bottle of wine will taste better, but that our taste is actually affected by our emotions.

    Opinions -- everyone has them, and they are emotionally based. You can't get an accurate answer through reason. We all have different experiences, and we are going to have different opinions because of that. It doesn't mean that anyone's opinion is wrong (except when dealing with facts), just that we all wear multi-colored glasses.
     
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